Hello, everyone! Welcome to a new year!
As 2015 gives up the ghost, and 2016 rears its head, it's a time honored tradition to take a step back, look at your life and mutter, "...well, I could do that better". It might sound silly at first, but you can do this not just with the big things - personal health, finding a better job, finally cleaning out your house - but also the small things, like making sure you finally read that book you've wanted to for years, or making sure you go on that small vacation to the next state over to see Gettysburg.
For us here, it's gaming. Gaming is something we all started as a way to get away from the real world, enjoy life, and try something new. However, as you get older, and you have to start managing a full time job and other responsibilities, you might find yourself stressed while trying to relax. Also, now that the writers here at Sprites and Dice have started to write more critically, we have to remind ourselves to sit back, relax, and remember why we started writing in the first place.
Here are our resolutions for 2016 when it comes to gaming; maybe you have one similar, or maybe they'll inspire you to take a look at what you want for yourself this year.
Eric's Resolutions
- Try more online play, especially with people I don't know. There are games that I like (such as League of Legends) that I don't play just because of anxiety about the team. However, I just started playing through Destiny with Wyatt and a few other friends, and loving it. I want to enjoy the social online scene more in games.
- Take more time to appreciate how games do what they do mechanically and story-wise, instead of just blazing through to the end and missing things along the way.
- Get Wyatt to try the My Little Pony CCG, and convince him it's a good game. Bonus points for Dana.
Adam's Resolutions
- Enjoy the stories in games again. I love a good online bout like Heroes of the Storm with Wyatt and Eric, but a good story is what really gets me into a new game these days.
- Also, I should really chill on trying to teach new games to everyone and just enjoy playing them. I have so many board games that I don't even manage to get off the shelf, so now I just want to play them all more. I'm starting to realize that one game played well a dozen times is worth way more than a dozen games no one enjoyed.
- Catch up on all my Miniatures painting. I know I've made it clear that I love wargaming in the past, but this last year was really busy for me. I didn't play much, and instead ended up just buying more and more miniatures to eventually play. I think I officially now have over a hundred unpainted miniatures, and instead of buying more, I should really crack down and get those finished so I can enjoy those now, rather than later.
- Not to steal from Zoë.... but I need to make a damn game, too! It's always been a dream, and this is the year. It's something I've always wanted to do, and when Zoë and I started the website back in 2013, we said this was our way to jump back into the gaming world, and learn what it takes to make something good ourselves. For them, it was a video game, and for myself, a board game. 2015 was way too busy to really work on this, but now I'm starting 2016 with a new job, freshly married, and money saved up to get an artist on board. I can't wait to start alpha testing and seeing how it works; hopefully by December, I'll be ready to have a Kickstarter of my own, and see what other gaming websites have to say about my work for a change.
Those are our lists; do you have one of your own? Resolutions or no, and no matter what you pick, we all wish you a happy new year, and remember to have fun while getting through another solar cycle.
Think we could have made better lists for ourselves? Tell us in the comments, or share your own! If you want to keep up with what games we look at next, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Happy New Year!
